Waterborne diseases are killers, and we know how to address this issue. However, professionals working in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) haven’t engaged enough people to help implement the solutions. We’re not the best at telling our story or sharing our knowledge, so we’re often misunderstood and underfunded. WASH professionals must improve their communication skills to communicate the urgency and importance of WASH and get individuals and organizations to feel compelled to donate and support WASH efforts.

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WASH communications – both writing and presentations – can often get very technical. If it's too technical, you’ll lose your non-technical target audience, and your messaging can fall flat or go nowhere. So how can you improve your WASH communications to increase impact? The key is to identify your target audiences and what you would like them to do, and then find ways to make your technical and scientific knowledge digestible and interesting for them. By making content easier to understand and adapted to your audience, you will increase their motivation to mobilize support and advocate for more resources.

The Communications Basics course aims to improve WASH professionals' communication skills, making technical knowledge easier to digest and communicate effective messaging. It is a professional development course to help water and sanitation professionals communicate more effectively with actors in and outside the sector.